Portfolio Guide

Overcoming the Odds:
     This is a story of a boy who wants to make his dream a reality. He is willing to do anything and everything to accomplish his goal, but will the opposition push him in the wrong direction and make him walk away from his dream? That's something you will find out when you read.

You Can't Trust Everyone:
    This is a story of a boy who worked hard to get to the position he is in. He is in the middle of making a big decision that will affect his future. The only thing that stands in his way is someone who is extremely close to him and changes the outcome he is headed. What could it be that affects this boy's future? That's something you will find out when you read.

Ball is Life: 
    This is a story of a man who dedicated his whole life to the game of basketball. The life of consisting of basketball has finally caught of up to him and has put him in an unpredictable place. Will he able to overcome what has happened to him? That's something you will find out when you read.

The Teammates Who Took It All Away:
    This is a story of a guy that had it all it took to become the next big thing in his sport. The spotlight and media were always surrounding him, due to his success, while his teammates never received anywhere close to the same amount of attention he did. This rubbed them the wrong way, so they decided to take matters into their own hands. How did they go about doing that? Well, that's something you will find out when you read. 

Week 6 Storytelling: The Teammates Who Took It All Away

The Teammates Who Took It All Away

            Ryan Parker was your normal local kid from Inglewood, California. He was the quarterback for Inglewood High school and his play had made him into one of the best players in the state of California, but not just California - he was widely considered one of the best quarterback prospects in the entire United States. He stood at 6 foot 4 inches tall and weighed in at 205 pounds. Ryan was always making and grabbing the headlines for his miraculous skills and plays he made out on the football gridiron because he was a once in a generation type of talent. He had offers from all around the country, but he cut his list of schools down to his Top 5 choices, which were the University of Oklahoma (OU), University of Southern California (USC), University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), Ohio State University (OSU), and the University of California – Berkley (CAL).

           Inglewood High School Football Team

 As the season began, Ryan started to get an unearthly amount of publicity and stature from all major sport news television shows, including ESPN, Fox Sports, and the NFL Network. All of this attention that he was getting seemed to be a good thing except in the eyes of a few of Ryan’s teammates. They were jealous of all the lights and cameras being solely focused on him and not the overall success of the team throughout the season, even though they were having a historic season by chasing an undefeated record throughout the regular season and playoffs. They would become the first Inglewood High School team to accomplish this feat. 
            The season went on and they would finish the regular season undefeated; now the goal was the win the State Championship in the Open Division of California. Ryan led his team to the State Championship, where they were 15-0 and had one last game to cap off this miraculous season. In the State Championship game, Ryan and Inglewood High School would take on perennial powerhouse, De La Salle, who had been the dominate team in California for quite some time. Inglewood High School would go on to beat De La Salle in the State Championship game by a score of 35 – 24, in route to becoming the first and only Inglewood High School football team to go undefeated throughout the entire season.

There was celebration to be had, but also it was the point where jealousy got the best of a few of Ryan’s teammates. In respect to the State Championship victory, some of the students decided to throw a house party to celebrate it all. Ryan was the celebrity of the party; every girl at the party wanted to talk to him and be with him, while every guy was vouching to give him a celebration shot in honor of winning the championship. He became very intoxicated after all of the alcohol he had consumed and from across the room his teammates noticed. They approached him to “help” him get outside to throw up and relieve himself, but they had a different plan for him. This was their chance to finally get back at him as their jealousy had turned into anger at this point. They all finally got outside to the side of the house and this is when his teammates unloaded on him, punching and kicking him till he was lying on the ground. His teammates continued to beat him up until they decided he had enough, but did not leave without kicking him in the head, one last time.

They left Ryan out there and he was unconscious, not moving, but no one knew of what happened until one girl came outside to try and find Ryan. She walked to the side of the house and found him there lying face first on the ground, motionless. She immediately called 911 and the ambulance quickly arrived at the scene, but it was, indeed, too late. Ryan passed away due to the kick to the head. This left the whole town, his family, and friends in shambles. He never got the chance to go to college and live out his dream of becoming an NFL quarterback.

Author’s Note:

            The story of The Pretty Stranger who Killed the King gave me a lot of great background information for me to develop this story. It allowed me to creatively think of how I can take the basis of that story and put my own twist to it. The story I chose is about MBOTU, the king of Old Town, Calabar in Nigeria. He was extremely successful, but had many enemies because of greed. The people of Itu wanted to kill him, but were not strong enough as a whole to take him out, so they resorted to witchcraft. There was a woman who was a witch and transformed herself into a young and pretty girl, and armed herself with a knife to go to Old Town to seek the king. The king was fond of pretty girls, and he sent for her. The witch ended up putting a sleep medicine in his meal to put him to sleep and then proceeded to kill the king by cutting his head off. This left Old Town in shambles and vulnerable to attach from the people of Itu. I hope you will read my story, then the Author’s Note, and my story again to see the correlation between the two stories.

Bibliography: ThePretty Stranger who Killed the King, Elphinstone Dayrell (1910)

Storytelling for Week 5: Ball is Life

Ball is Life

            The game of basketball can mean the world to some people; it was no different for Scott Smith. He played basketball his whole life, starting when he was four years old playing in the community recreation league to when he was 36, entering his last season in the NBA. The sport of basketball was Scott’s escape from life, the thing where he found peace and could be himself. He dedicated his life to basketball and it was all he knew. He even played at the YMCA after he retired from the NBA because he loved basketball so much.

He was most comfortable when he was at the gym putting tireless amounts of work trying to make it to the National Basketball Association. Scott did the same thing when he made it to the NBA. He never wanted to be behind the pack in terms of skill. This is why he spent all of his time in the gym when he was not at home doing homework or at school. He knew that all of this hard work would pay off when it came the time for colleges to start recruiting him, and farther down the road when the NBA came calling his name. Scott had a very successful NBA career, making six All-Star Appearances, won one NBA Championship, and was very well respected throughout the league. But his time in the NBA eventually came to end and Scott had to retire. Scott still filled his void of basketball in various ways, whether it was shooting outside in his driveway with his children or playing at the YMCA when he had the time to.

Year after year passed, and Scott got older and his body began to break down from the extensive amount of mileage he put on his body during his entire basketball career. It finally caught up to him and Scott was forced to have surgery. In his case, it was for reconstructive knee surgery. He went through the surgery process and everything went smoothly for him, but they needed him to stay in the hospital for a little longer to do some rehabilitation therapy on his knee. A few days passed, and many people came to see Scott while he was in the hospital; they brought him all kinds of gifts to bring him comfort. The next to last day before Scott was going to be released from the hospital a complication arose in the form of an infection that somehow came about. The infection was in the knee that had been through surgery. The doctors were worried. They decided to take him back to clean out the infected area to try and heal it. Another day passed. The knee was doing good and had no major complications regarding the circumstance. The next day, the infection returned, but with more vengeance. The doctors tried to do the same thing again, but this time the rinsing of the knee did not work and the infection was spreading. Scott was extremely terrified at this point and did not want to have to suffer through this anymore. The doctors prepared Scott’s family and friends to say their goodbyes and informed Scott that he only had a week to live.

Scott began to reminisce about all of the great memories he had from playing the game that he surely loved, basketball. He had one request before his last few days; Scott wanted his wife to get his basketball that he kept all these years. This is the only ball Scott would ever do anything basketball related with. He used it from the time he first stepped on a collegiate court to his last days before entering the hospital.  He even named the ball “Magic” after his favorite player of all time, Magic Johnson. His wife brought him his basketball so he could hold it for his last few days to live. A few days passed and the infection got worse, spreading farther through his body. Scott had one more request; he wanted to get a basketball goal in his room to take a few more shots before he passed away. They granted his request. It was his last night as he could tell his body was on its last few moments, but he was determined to shoot all night. He began to shoot and with every make Scott gained comfort and happiness. He eventually fell asleep, holding the ball during what he believed to be his last night alive. 

Magic Johnson, former PG of Los Angeles Lakers

 

Scott woke the next morning as energized as ever, and the doctors took him back for one last scan to see if anything had happen to the infection. The scan went through its process and printed out a sheet describing what was taking place in Scott’s body. They looked at it thoroughly and came away surprised! The doctors could not believe what had happened, but somehow miraculously the infection went away and Scott was going to live a long and healthy life. Scott was enthused by the doctors’ news, but he knew his ball would provide him with a little “Magic.”

Bibliography: Santal Folklore, Cecil Henry Bompas (1909)

Author's Note:

The Hyena Outwitted: 
        I picked this story because I found it easy to relate to because there is always something we love in life that turns around and gives us trouble in the end, but that single thing can also help turn around any situation for the better. In this story, the tiger became extremely ill after digesting a man and making a huge meal from him, which led to very bad indigestion. The tiger was the Raja of the jungle and wished all of the animals would come say their farewells before he passed away. He put trust in the hyena to be the messenger for this, but the hyena believed he should find another messenger in the crow, while he stayed at the side of the ailing tiger. The crow relayed the message to all of the animals, but the jackals showed up late. The hyena verbally attacked the jackals, but the jackals outwitted the hyena by telling the tiger of the medicine they discovered on their way. The medicine needed for a hyena to be flayed alive, which was the end of the hyena and the jackals got their revenge.    

Week 4 Storytelling: You Can't Trust Everyone

You Can’t Trust Everyone

            You have everything you want, you are at the top of your sport, and every college in the nation wants you to play for their institution. This was the life of highly touted recruit, Damien Johnson, the best high school basketball player in the nation. Damien was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and played at Lower Merion High School, the same school that produced Kobe Bryant. He stood at 6’8” and 225 lbs. and played small forward/power forward, but what set him apart from the rest of the players in the nation was his overall skill set at the position he played. Damien was not your traditional small forward/power forward combination. He could handle and pass the ball like a point guard, shoot like a shooting guard, slash to the basket like a small forward, plus he rebounded and had post moves like power forwards and centers. He was the complete package, a once in a generation type player who could change the face of any program. The only thing that could slow down his career was the same problem that haunted all of the top talent before him: the people that surrounded him.

            It was the last semester of Damien’s senior year of high school and his team was number one in the state of Pennsylvania with the playoffs right around the corner. His recruiting was on full tilt and he was receiving phone calls, letters, and message at a hectic pace as coaches from North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, and Oklahoma were fighting for him to sign with their program for the next year. The thing that comes with big programs fighting for his commitment is the boosters or donors of those programs willing to push money towards players to give them more motivation to sign with their school. If a player accepts money of any sum from anyone, then their eligibility is revoked and they cannot play collegiate sports anymore. Damien knew of this and had turned down many offers of large amounts of money before; he did not want to risk his collegiate career because of a dumb decision to accept money that he knew he would make down the line in the NBA.

Damien’s family was not the wealthiest, but made enough money to live comfortably. They lived in a decent-size house; it was enough to hold Damien, his little brother, plus their parents. There was not enough worry about money that would tempt Damien to take any sum of money offered to him by any donor. The playoffs were now in full effect as Damien and Lower Merion were the overall number one seed in the playoffs, looking to win a state championship. Damien dominated throughout the playoffs, averaging 25 points per game, 8 rebounds per game, and 7 assist per game, which warranted more attention from everyone including not only coaches, but media outlets, such as ESPN and Fox Sports. He was being compared to Lebron James and Magic Johnson, two of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball. 
As his popularity grew and the offers rained in, he reminded his parents and his brother not to accept any money of any amount or it would jeopardize his basketball career.  As the semester was coming to an end, National Signing Day was upon Damien. It was his time to make his decision on where he wanted to attend college. He had trimmed down his list to three schools: Villanova, Oklahoma and Michigan St.  Damien ended up choosing Villanova which was his hometown school and he wanted to become the “Hometown Hero.”

 Logo of Villanova

A couple of weeks had passed since National Signing Day, and Damien was getting everything squared away before he left to join the team at Villanova at the beginning of the summer. This is when the worst possible news headed Damien’s family way; his father had been laid off at his job. This was such a big blow to his family’s living situation as they would be living off of just one salary instead of two. Somehow, this news caught air and got to a Villanova booster, a long time family friend of Damien’s father. He called Damien’s father and asked for him to meet with him to “talk.”  They met up at a bar in downtown Philadelphia and talked for a while, but towards the end of the conversation, the booster pulled out a check worth one hundred thousand dollars and handed it to Damien’s father. He knew it was wrong to accept this money, but he knew that he could help his family for a good amount of time while he looked for a new job. Damien’s father took the check with him and thanked his friend for the money.

Damien got to Villanova and began summer workouts with the team to prepare for his freshman season. He impressed the coaching staff with everything he did, on and off the court. They were preparing him to start this upcoming season and be the star of the program. The compliance office caught word of Damien’s father accepting the booster’s check, and held an investigation, in which they found the wrongdoing of Damien’s father. This made Damien ineligible to ever compete in collegiate basketball or any collegiate sports. The person who Damien was supposed to trust the most is the one who damaged him the most in the end. Villanova got pushed back into a major setback that affected them down the road. The moral of the story is that no matter whom it is you cannot always trust the people in your corner.

Author Note:

           
     My story is based off using information from The Stupid Monkeys, which is a story from Jakata Tales.  I wanted to use this story because when I read The Stupid Monkeys, it gave me ideas for a story of trust and asking someone to do something for you, but they mess it up. This is something I am familiar with and I know that it can happen to college athletes when their family members take extra benefits from someone else and ruin the career of the athlete. That is how I developed the story of Damien, as he trusted his father to do something very simple and easy, but he still messed up. The Stupid Monkeys: The gardener wanted to spend the holiday in town with his friends, so he thought he could give the task of watering the king's trees to the monkeys who lived there. He asked the Chief of the Monkey's if they could help him out and they agreed. He told the monkeys to give the trees just enough water, but not too much when the sun went down. As the sun went down, the monkeys started to water the trees, but did not know how to figure out when to stop watering the trees. They pulled up each tree to see which ones had long roots and had short roots to know how much water to give them, which, in return, killed the trees. The monkey had a simple task of watering the trees, but did not know when they had given the trees enough water for them to live, so they pulled up the trees and they ended up dying. My goal was to draw the readers in by connecting to the character as each of us can relate to in which he did everything the right way only to be torn down by someone he had put a large amount of trust in.

Bibliography: 

           The Stupid Monkeys, Ellen C. Babbitt (1922)